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On Saturday 18 June, Bermondsey’s Social Club played host to the launch of Hair of the Dog Drag Brunch, a delicious meal combined with drag queen pleasure. How can you say no?
The venue itself is under the railway arches, tucked away down an easily missed alley, which appears to have recently received investment. Bermondsey Social Club isn’t signposted, apart from ‘Arch 19’; however we did spot a pink sign next door for ‘BB Bakery’ (I’m hoping this isn’t a Grindr acronym, otherwise I’d avoid the patisseries), so look out for this and you’ll be in the right place.
The ‘brunch’ part of the event is served up by Forrest Foods, which includes a welcome hair-of-the-dog drizzle of lemon and gin topped up with fizz, and a cash bar available for further, and necessary (albeit overpriced), bottles of prosecco. Mimosas and Bloody Marys are also available at £5 each.
The food menu, whilst speckled with an assortment of uninspiring chilli sauces, provided exactly what you need at 11am. The three-cheese grilled sandwiches, fresh guacamole and black bean sides, shaksuka (baked eggs), jerk sausage and pide bread were all greedily gobbled, soaking up the previous night’s alcohol.
The drag element features Shay Shay and her troupe of queens, The Gu-Good Girls – part of the genderfluid drag scene. A regular at Sink the Pink, Shay Shay provides the improvisation, sass and passion of the group, while the two other Gu-Good Girls have a lacklustre lip-sync and in their finale resembled more a Bo-Selecta-Mel-B calamity rather than the performance standard set by Ru Paul.
As a concept, Hair of the Dog Drag Brunch is fabulous and should be the next big thing in the (LGBT) world. We ate brunch, we witnessed a drag show and we did laugh into our glasses of prosecco, restoring equilibrium to an otherwise hungover state.
The execution could be tightened with more attention to detail. For example, covering the windows, which added unnecessary stray sunlight, would be a welcome improvement (or the whole thing could even be moved to a Soho/Vauxhall-centric location). Other areas include improving on the use of poundshop sweets for dessert and tighter lip-syncing. And of course, more Hey Hey Shay Shay!
Hair of the Dog Drag Brunch is definitely one to watch.
Hair of the Dog Drag Brunch was on at 11am and 2pm on Saturday 18 June, with future dates to be confirmed.
Bermondsey Social Club is at Arch 19 Almond Road, London, SE16 3LR. Tickets cost £38.
Contact hotdogbrunch@gmail.com or @hotdogbrunch (#sideofsausage) on Twitter for further details.
